Ex

Hector Delgado, 21, of Chicago

CROWN POINT — After Hector Delgado broke into the Hammond home Alyssa Flores shared with her father, he strangled, beat and shot the 18-year-old woman in her bed during the early morning hours of Oct. 18, 2021.

Delgado, 21, was charged Aug. 4 with murder, burglary, domestic battery and strangulation and arrested Aug. 11 by the United States Marshals Great Lakes Task Force and Hammond police. He was extradited to Indiana Monday. Newly unsealed court documents chronicle the volatile relationship between Delgado and Flores over a period of four years before the killing.

Delgado and Flores met in high school and dated on and off until a few months before her death, charging documents state. Loved ones detailed arguments between the two that ended with Delgado physically injuring Flores. On one occasion, Delgado pulled Flores by her hair from inside a vehicle and struck her multiple times, which was documented in a May 2021 police report. In November 2019, he broke a window to get inside Flores’ home when she wouldn’t answer the door.

Hammond police arrived at her apartment around noon on the 4000 block of Towle Avenue to find broken glass on the floor and blood on the door frame of her bedroom. Police found a single shell casing from a bullet underneath Flores’ bed. She appeared to be sleeping when the slaying occurred. The Lake County coroner’s office ruled her death a homicide caused by a massive head injury, gunshot wound, strangulation and blunt force trauma to the head.

Concerns for Flores’ safety arose when she failed to respond to her parents’ texts and didn’t show up for work. Her father rushed home from work and said he found her bedroom door locked. When he called her name and received no answer, he broke open the door and discovered her body.

Video surveillance footage allegedly shows a car with the same description as Delgado’s vehicle driving east on 140th Street and turning south onto Towle avenue toward Flores’ residence around 7:24 a.m. on the day she died. Footage from Delgado’s workplace in Glenwood shows him arriving for his shift around 8:06 a.m. The trip between the two locations takes approximately 20 minutes, which leaves 20 additional minutes for Delgado to break into Flores’ bedroom and kill her, detectives allege.

Delgado’s DNA was found on the sweatshirt Flores was wearing at the time of her death.

He told police after the killing that he hadn’t seen Flores in months. The two of them had lived with her mother and mother’s boyfriend before they moved into an apartment together in Chicago. They moved out of the apartment after it was burglarized in July 2021. He acknowledged that they were “toxic” and argued a lot in their relationship, according to court documents.

Delgado is being held at the Lake County Jail without bail. He is set to appear in court Tuesday.

If you or someone you love is a victim of domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-7233 or text “START” to 88788.

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Public Safety Reporter

Riding with the Indiana State Police